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Views from the Choir Loft

Youth Choristers: Get Them While They’re Young

Patrick Torsell · January 14, 2020

T is an oft-repeated truism that the future is in the hands of the youth. To a group of young people St. John Paul II once said: “The future is in your hearts and in your hands.” And yet the future that the youth will usher in depends in large part upon what we instill in their hearts and place in their hands. Applying this notion to sacred music, it is clear that we should do all that we can to form young people to understand the mens ecclesiae regarding liturgical music, and to fill their ears, hearts, and minds with truly sacred music from a young age. And not just the children with natural musical aptitude!

I’m very blessed to work in a parish where we have made this a priority, and so I shall endeavor to share some of our efforts, successes, and challenges in several blog posts over the coming months. For this post, I’ll just share an overview of our program in its current form, and we can dive into some more details in the future.

In our small Latin Mass community–with an average Sunday Mass attendance of about 475–we have more than 80 students ages 7-18 in our Chorister program. Choristers meet once a week as an extension of our religious education program. Split into five separate classes (more on how we separate them in a future post), Choristers is a combined lecture/practicum program to introduce students to the history, philosophy, theory, and application of sacred music.

Our Choristers are not auditioned, and all students participating in the weekly religious education program also participate in Choristers. Along with their classwork, the Choristers prepare chant, hymns, and simple polyphony to sing for two High Masses per semester. The program has grown tremendously in the past three years (there were about 35 students in 2017/18), and the students genuinely enjoy learning about sacred music. One of the most rewarding things for me as their teacher and director is when, as just recently happened, a parent remarks: “My boy has always been an athlete, a football player. Now I hear him wandering around the house humming Gregorian chants!” Deo gratias! (N.B. I have no bias against athletes; I’ve been a competitive skier in the past. I just love it when others make the epiphanic realization that athleticism and musicianship are not mutually exclusive!)

In future posts about engaging young people in sacred music, I’ll address a few important topics:

  • What sort of curriculum is effective?
  • Why allow non-musically oriented students in the program?
  • What techniques are useful to keep students engaged in lectures and rehearsal?
  • What’s the difference between this sort of Chorister program and a typical youth choir?
  • What kind of external support is required to make a Chorister program successful?

I’m sure other ideas will come to mind. If you have any specific questions you’d like me to address, please feel free to email me.

Stay tuned for more, and may God reward you for your dedication to sacred music!

+JMJ+

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

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Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 15, 2020

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Patrick Torsell

About Patrick Torsell

Patrick Torsell is the Director of Music and Organist at Mater Dei Latin Mass Community in Harrisburg, PA.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

19 January 2021 • Confusion over feasts

For several months, we have discussed the complicated history of the various Christmas feasts: the Baptism of the Lord, the feast of the Holy Family, the Epiphany, and so forth. During a discussion, someone questioned my assertion that in some places Christmas had been part of the Epiphany. As time went on, of course, the Epiphany came to represent only three “manifestations” (Magi, Cana, Baptism), but this is not something rigid. For example, if you look at this “Capital E” from the feast of the Epiphany circa 1350AD, you can see it portrays not three mysteries but four—including PHAGIPHANIA when Our Lord fed the 5,000. In any event, anyone who wants proof the Epiphany used to include Christmas can read this passage from Dom Prosper Guéranger.

—Jeff Ostrowski
6 January 2021 • Anglicans on Plainsong

A book published by Anglicans in 1965 has this to say about Abbat Pothier’s Editio Vaticana, the musical edition reproduced by books such as the LIBER USUALIS (Solesmes Abbey): “No performing edition of the music of the Eucharistic Psalmody can afford to ignore the evidence of the current official edition of the Latin Graduale, which is no mere reproduction of a local or partial tradition, but a CENTO resulting from an extended study and comparison of a host of manuscripts gathered from many places. Thus the musical text of the Graduale possesses a measure of authority which cannot lightly be disregarded.” They are absolutely correct.

—Jeff Ostrowski
2 January 2021 • Temptation

When I see idiotic statements made on the internet, I go nuts. When I see heretics promoted by people who should know better, I get angry. Learning to ignore such items is difficult—very difficult. I try to remember the words of Fr. Valentine Young: “Do what God places in front of you each day.” When I am honest, I don’t believe God wants me to dwell on errors and idiocy; there’s nothing I can do about that. During 2021, I will strive to do a better job following the advice of Fr. Valentine.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“I have, on the other hand, retained several more or less traditional tunes, absolutely valueless and without merit from a musical point of view, but which seem to have become a necessity if a book is to appeal—as I hope this one will—to the varied needs of various churches.”

— A. Edmonds Tozer (1905)

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